A Game of Patience

At a time in my life when I was experiencing a long spell of stormy weather, I saw a sign on someone’s office wall that said: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain”. Those words were an ointment for my troubled heart. If one waits until the storm passes, they may be waiting most of their entire life.

For me, time spent playing in the backyard with my grandniece and nephew was a rain dance. A walk in the park, or shopping at my favorite store, or a day trip to some new place was a dance in the rain. The rain dance doesn’t make the storm disappear or make it any shorter, but it sure helps to weather through one.

A storm can be a long one filled with days of waiting. It may seem nothing is being done, but one can’t see what the Lord sees. It’s a matter of faith to leave the storm in the Lord’s hands, seek and follow his guidance, and in the meantime, dance in the rain. It may be our job to sit still even though that’s the last thing we want to do. It helps to remember that in most of the storms in our lives, there’s more than just us in the picture. It may be someone else’s turn to go out on a limb and our job to sit still and wait.

Have you ever gone to a baseball game where all the players on both sides were on the field at the same time? If you did, they weren’t playing baseball. Only one team is playing in the outfield while the other team is sitting in the dugout. Have you ever seen all the players on one team up at bat at the same time? Hopefully not! There’s just one player who is batting and those waiting for their turn in the dugout. Perhaps baseball is one sport that’s good for learning patience because “waiting” is a requirement.

It takes faith to weather the storm by dancing in the rain. It takes faith to sit still and wait upon the Lord. It takes faith to take one’s turn up to bat. It may be taking an action that will rock your world, changing every aspect of your life. Or, it may be a simple task such as visiting a neighbor whom God knows needs someone that day to talk to. God may pick me to be that someone. It’s up to me leave the dugout and go to bat for my neighbor who some day may be at my door when I am needing a listening ear.